60-Year-Old Woman Arrested, Detained 4 Months Without Trial for Carrying Brochures

Ning Tingyun has been held against her will for over four months in a detention center in Yushu, China, for carrying brochures. Screenshot via minghui.org

A 60-year-old woman was arrested and detained without trial after a police officer found brochures in her possession during a random identification check in Yushu, China. The brochures contained material that the Chinese regime has suppressed.

Ning Tingyun was on her way to visit her daughter in Shanghai from her home in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province. She was stopped by a domestic security police officer when passing through Yushu railway station in Jilin Province on Oct. 15, 2017, reported Minghui.org, a website that documents cases of Chinese state persecution against adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual practice.

The officer carried out an identification check on the woman without producing the proper documentation—an action considered illegal under China’s own laws. According to Article 15 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Resident Identity Cards, a police officer may only examine a resident’s identity card “after producing ... law-enforcement papers.”

During the check, Ning was flagged as a Falun Gong practitioner in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) database. The officer then proceeded to search Ning’s belongings.

Other Falun Gong adherents like Ning have experienced the same type of harassment from police officers in China.

The officer found that Ning was carrying brochures that document the injustices experienced by ordinary Chinese citizens for being associated with Falun Gong. Falun Gong has been a sensitive topic in China since 1999 when then CCP leader Jiang Zemin launched a systematic campaign to vilify and destroy the spiritual practice and its estimated 70 million to 100 million adherents.

Ning was arrested and taken to a detention center where she remains in custody. Her case has been sent to the court, but as of mid-February, a trial had still yet to be conducted.

The Crackdown

After China’s leadership announced its crackdown on Falun Gong in 1999, Ning was one of thousands who traveled to the CCP’s central appeals office in Beijing to appeal for her right to freedom of belief to be respected, as protected under the Chinese Constitution.

Police detain a Falun Gong protester in Tiananmen Square on Oct. 1, 2000. In January 2017, the Chinese regime appeared to publicly indicate that the persecution campaign remains an official policy. AP Photo/Chien-min Chung

However, before Ning could share her personal Falun Gong experience with the officials, she was arrested and sent to Jiamusi Forced Labor Camp for one year. Her name was placed on a police blacklist.

After her release from the labor camp, Ning experienced constant harassment from police officers, Minghui.org reported. During one incident, her home was raided by police officers who confiscated her Falun Gong books as well as 2,000 yuan ($315) in cash. She was told it was because she did the Falun Gong qigong exercises out in public.

Ning has also been arrested multiple times for discussing with others the brutality of the CCP’s persecution of her faith.

Ning was first introduced to Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa), in 1998 when she was plagued with health problems. She noticed a change in her health after starting the practice at her local park.

Other Falun Gong adherents like Ning have experienced the same type of harassment from police officers in China.

Wang Huijuan, an elementary school teacher who is currently residing in New York, was arrested and detained after Chinese domestic security police found flyers and DVDs exposing the CCP’s disinformation that it spreads to justify its persecution of Falun Gong, reported The Epoch Times.

People practice the exercises of Falun Gong at a park in Sydney on June 26, 2017. Courtesy of Emma Morley

Wang was held at a detention center and was eventually sentenced to seven years in prison. There, she endured brainwashing, interrogation, physical restraint, beatings, force-feedings, sleep deprivation, and psychological torture in a process the CCP does for the purposes of “thought-reform.”

As for Ning, the 60-year-old’s family members remain extremely worried for her welfare. This Chinese New Year, Ning’s family is waiting desperately to hear any news about her condition.

Frank Fang contributed to this report.

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